Abdullah Shah Ghazi Shrine Attacked in Karachi

The media is dubbing Abdullah Shah Ghazi as a “Sufi saint”, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. He was a descendant of Imam Hasan (peace be upon him) and an esteemed jurist and scholar in the holy city of Medina. According to historians, Islam had reached the Indian subcontinent during the caliphate of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), and during the time of Imam Zainul Abideen (peace be upon him), as persecution against the Prophet’s Household increased, he left Medina and came to Sindh – the province which is home to the city of Karachi today – where he began propagating Islam and the School of Ahlul Bayt.

October 7, 2010 will go down in history as another dark episode in the campaign of violence and oppression that has been perpetrated against Islam and the Household of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him and his progeny) for over 1400 years. As worshipers and visitors were leaving after Maghrib prayers that Thursday evening, two suicide bomb blasts rocked the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi in Karachi, Pakistan. According to reports by the daily Jang, so far ten people are reported to have been killed, and over 70 have been wounded.

The media is dubbing Abdullah Shah Ghazi as a “Sufi saint”, when in fact nothing could be further from the truth. He was a descendant of Imam Hasan (peace be upon him) and an esteemed jurist and scholar in the holy city of Medina. According to historians, Islam had reached the Indian subcontinent during the caliphate of Imam Ali (peace be upon him), and during the time of Imam Zainul Abideen (peace be upon him), as persecution against the Prophet’s Household increased, he left Medina and came to Sindh – the province which is home to the city of Karachi today – where he began propagating Islam and the School of Ahlul Bayt.

This soon came to the attention of Hajjaj ibn Yusuf, the tyrannical Umayyad governor of Iraq who is responsible for killing over 100,000 Muslims (including the esteemed companions Kumayl ibn Ziyad and Sa’eed bin Jubayr) as well as attacking the Ka’ba with catapults and pillaging the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. Hajjaj sent his nephew, Muhammad ibn Qasim, to invade Sindh and capture Abdullah. Portrayed falsely as the dashing young hero who brought Islam to India, Muhammad ibn Qasim was nothing more than a savage Umayyad general who attacked Sindh and killed Raja Dahir, the Hindu prince who had sworn to protect Abdullah. The latter was also captured and martyred by the Umayyad forces. His body was buried near the coast, while his head was sent as a trophy to Hajjaj.

Abdullah Shah Ghazi, as he is popularly known, is considered the “patron saint” of Karachi. According to the local legend, a group of fishermen once came to him and complained about the turbulent sea preventing them from earning their livelihoods. Upon his command, the sea became tranquil, and it is said that since then, tropical natural disasters have never bothered the locals. When Cyclone Phet neared the coast of Karachi earlier this year, and as the government went about putting hospitals and relief agencies on high alert, the inhabitants of the city gathered near the coast with binoculars, almost in a display of defiance. At the last hour, the cyclone diverted away, which many believe was out of respect for this holy personality.

His shrine has been a pilgrimage site for the jobless young man, the childless mother, and the hopeless patient on the brink of death. Their supplications are granted and their afflictions are removed, all from the grace of Ghazi. Despite the salty and undrinkable water found all over Karachi, his shrine contains a freshwater spring that is not only potable but is revered for its healing properties.

The attack on the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi is a continuation of the oppressed being meted out against the progeny of the Prophet for the past 1400 years. It is ironic that the Hindu Raja Dahir gave his life trying to protect this holy personality, yet the government of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan miserably failed to protect his visitors and its own citizens, offering only some half-hearted apologies about its inability to stop suicide bombers.

Despite the fact that he was a descendant of the Prophet and belonged to the School of Ahlul Bayt, the shrine of Abdullah Shah Ghazi has attracted Shias and Sunnis alike for generations. The ignorant extremists who attacked his shrine and have destroyed dozens of mosques and places of worship around the Muslim world today are the cancerous progeny of the same ruthless Umayyads who initially ordered the martyrdom of this holy personality, and who colored the streets of Hejaz, Iraq, and Syria with the blood of thousands of innocent Muslims. In this critical period when sectarian extremists attempt to split the Muslim world apart, it is vital upon Muslims to verbally and ideologically distance themselves from these vile perversions of our beautiful faith and come together under the true banner of Muslim unity, as outlined by our beloved Holy Prophet: “I am leaving behind among you two weighty things – the Qur’an and my Progeny, the Ahlul Bayt. If you hold on to them, you will indeed never go astray.”